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THE 



piRiT OF Research 



AND ITS APPLICATION TO 



VIRGINIAN HISTORY, 



BY PROF. JOHN B: HENNEMAN, M. A., Ph. D. 



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THE SPIRIT OF RESEARCH 



AND ITS APPLICATION 



TO VIRGINIAN HISTORY, 



A REPRINT FROM THE VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. 




THE SPIRIT OF RESEARCH, AND ITS APPLICA- 
TION TO VIRGINIAN HISTORY.* 

V^'->'ERHAPS I should preface with a few words, in 
-1,^ order to explain the circumstances under which I 
am present here this evening. At the last annual meeting 
of the Virginia Association for the Advancement of Higher 
Education, I read a brief paper urging the collection of 
material scattered about everywhere throughout the State, 
but more particularly in connection with our institutions 
of learning, with a view to having ultimately written a 
history of the educational, intellectual, literary, and social 
life of Virginia. At the same time, as preparatory and 
essential to this work, I stressed the importance of research 
and independent investigation generally, and particularly 
in our methods of teaching^ — not so as to make colleges 
of high schools, and universities of colleges, but leaving 
each to work within its proper sphere, so as to allow the 
teacher to be as suggestive and stimulating as possible 
with the pupils, to implant within them an enthusiasm and 
desire to work for themselves, to collect material for pur- 
poses of their own interest and discovery, and to be ob- 
ser.vant recorders and faithful interpreters of the truth. It 
seemed to me that this habit of thought and thinking, and 
the methodical treatment of a subject with a definite pur- 
pose and distinct spirit, were as important aims as the 
accumulation of detailed facts and principles, whether 
from teachers' lips or from the pages of text-books. 

One of your faculty was kind enough to suggest that, 

*A paper read before the Philosopliical Society of the University of 
V^irginia, January i6, 1S92, l:)y John H. Henneman, M. A., (University of 
Virginia), T'h. I)., (Derlin), Professor of English and History in Hampden- 
Sidney College. 

Gift 
American Hletorlca] Review .'.- 
FEB 2 6 1925 



as an alumnus of the University, on the occasion of a 
visit, I read an informal paper, in a similar vein, before the 
Philosophical Society, thinking that, perhaps, we might 
arouse a fresh interest in an old enough theme, and that 
a discussion might be productive of some good to those 
of us participating. I take advantage of the opportunity, 
therefore, to speak directly and informally and frankly. 

In reading this paper, I am not pretending to solve grave 
problems, still less to impart any fresh information. It is 
my desire simply to direct your attention and thought to 
a given channel, to seek and to obtain your opinions, sug- 
gestions, and sympathetic criticism. 

I feel that our work as teachers can only be vitally effect- 
ive when the point is clear that each and every one is 
laboring with a single object in view — to advance the edu- 
cational and intellectual life of Virginia and whatever sec- 
tions of the country may be represented in our several in- 
stitutions. So far from looking with critical eyes upon 
what is being done towards the great ends of education 
and of culture, of scholarship and of research, anywhere in 
the State, I am but too grateful for any interest wherever 
manifest, believing, only, that this must assume a catholic 
spirit and be founded upon the broadest basis in order to 
rise to its full possibilities. 

You will understand, therefore, how we teachers of the 
colleges and schools of the State look instinctively to you 
gentlemen of the University of Virginia for guidance, for 
example, and for support. 

Your responsibilities and our responsibilities are alike 
great. There are not too many educational institutions in 
Virginia. The necessities of the conditions in the near 
future will demand either more colleges, or the facilities of 
each and all must become enlarged. By placing together the 
catalogues of all the Virginian institutions, it will be very 
easy to calculate how many counties still fail to be repre- 



sented by a single youth off at college or university. This 
is an age of university extension, of the popularization of 
letters, of public lectures, cheap printing, reading rooms, 
libraries, and all the laboratory apparatus of intellectual 
physics. It seems to me that the problem, very nakedly 
stated, is: Are the advocates of Higher Education in Vir- 
ginia to utilize this interest and enthusiasm for their own 
purposes by directing it to noble and the most beneficial 
ends, or will they allow it to run riot and assume any 
shape and hue, and assert any manifestation it may chance 
to find in useless fads ? 

It seems to me that what we need is combined, system- 
atic work, so that we may husband all the resources and 
that no useless energy may be expended. In this regard 
you are particularly fortunate in the extent of your influence 
at the University. While we of the colleges touch only 
sections — in my own case principally the Southside, the 
Southwest, and West Virginia — and necessarily a limited 
public, you reach every section in the State, every State in 
the South, and many both West and North. Moreover, 
your students are both older and further advanced. The 
leavening process may, too, operate better from above 
downwards. This is, perhaps, the strongest argument in 
favor of higher education even among the'wildest enthusi- 
asts for free and common schools. The educated aristoc- 
racy, /. c. the best teachers, must make the first move and 
direct the progress of this thought. 

With influences irradiating from this central point domi- 
nant in philology, mathematics, the sciences, engineerihg, 
medicine, and the law — and with an eye impelled towards 
independent investigation and original research, your pos- 
sibilities and your opportunities are boundless. 

It is cheering and inspiriting for the student to use the 
text-book and notes of his own professor, the material 
which that professor has evolved out of his greater ex- 



5 

perience and constant study and reflection. The work of 
that particular instructor is rendered doubly eff"ective ; the 
personality is both reached and impressed. But may not 
the teacher find means in some way to advance a step far- 
ther ? Cannot the pupil be given a peep into the teacher's 
intellectual workshop, and be shown Junv these results are 
accumulated, just how the tools are handled to produce 
these works — even apart from the cunning, which, I 
grant, is inherent in every workman and indicative of 
his individual skill ? In addition to imparting facts and 
results and insisting on the accumulation of details — all 
perfectly good so far as it goes — may not more be done 
in indicating methods, suggesting the zvJiat and the 
hozv : what is still left and waiting to be worked up, 
and how it could be reached and accomplished with the 
best possible results ? May we produce not only work 
and workers, but also zvorkinen ? 

I have been literally filled with amazement that so many 
first-class men with bright intellects and keen inteiests 
work without all method ; or, even after getting up text- 
books, have so inadequate a conception of the proper val- 
ue of their accumulations ; knowing virtually nothing as 
to the manner of gathering testimony, the nature of evi- 
dence, the treatment of facts necessary to form an induc- 
tion, the independent classification and correlation of de- 
tails. 

I speak here purposely from my own experience, be- 
cause I feel that this course will be worth more to myself 
and be more worthy of your own attention and considera- 
tion. 

I have tried to explain to my classes the method of 
keeping various ledgers and note-books for given subjects, 
alphabetically divided and arranged, ready for the inser- 
tion of any fact or detail under its proper head. I have 
attempted to impress that it is important thus to save the 



scraps of information which one is constantly running 
across, and which otherwise soon go astray and are for- 
gotten ; to preserve the ca\l^al and transitory thoughts and- 
suggestions, often most valuable and trustworthy because 
spontaneous, and seldom or never to be recalled with the 
same force. 

I do not advise .icrap-books, for they are necessarily 
without much system and preconceived order, and the 
pasting in may consume both valuable time and labor. 
But a scrap-box is different. Into it may be thrown all 
sorts of cliopings and notes, to be afterwards more defi- 
nitely assorted ai.d arranged as to subjects and subdivis- 
ions, discarding worthless and extraneous matter, and 
bringing into use other boxes as both material and details 
accumulate. Or, just as the largest libraries are cata- 
logued, one may have a collection of cards or paper slips, 
and jot down each point and reference and observation on 
card or slip, which is afterwards placed in proper position 
and correlation. 

I know that the student will at first waste much, err 
much, select of all things just that which he may not need, 
will find much valueless stuff in his collections. But this 
is an argument in favor of such a system. The habits of 
observation and attention are formed ; and taste, discrimi- 
nation and judgment are to be trained only by constant 
exercise, or, as Matthew Arnold happily expresses it, by 
" playing freely about the facts." 

I am aware that we have encyclopaedias, just as we have 
professors. Even if they served the purpose — and, of 
course, they cannot — they do not teach the student how to 
work for himself, how to arrive at inductions and deduce 
other conclusions therefrom. The same principles are in- 
volved as in the application of the physical sciences, a view 
is gained of the subject as a whole, a philosophic grasp 
taken with proper insight into the development and the 
fitting together of the several parts. 



7 

A scholar writes out of the great experience of a life- 
time, or from a full note-book. These beget the inspira- 
tion and the suggestive thoivght. In looking over his 
collections new possibilities are observed, unsuspected 
material is at hand for an essay, for an address, for a mag- 
azine article, for a treatise, or even a greater work. 

But another point of view. There is much to be gained 
merely from concentration on some subject of interest, in 
addition to and outside of regular everyday work. It is 
strengthening to the mind to keep it constantly directed 
to a definite end and employed on a stated subject, despite 
the many temporary diversions it necessarily receives. It 
is surprising how much one finds when on the constant 
lookout for matter. Facts and thoughts which escape the 
ordinary observer, and would pass by the investigator 
himself unnoticed but for this unusual interest, are readily 
caught and preserved. 

Permit me to quote here the late Mr. Lowell : " There 
is nothing less profitable than scholarship for the mere 
sake of scholarship, nor anything more wearisome in the 
attainment. But the moment you have a definite aim, 
attention is quickened — the mother of memory — and all 
that you acquire groups and arranges itself in an order 
that is lucid, because everywhere and always it is in intel- 
ligent relation to a central object of constant and growing 
interest. This method also forces upon us the necessity 
of thinking, which is, after all, the highest result of all 
education." 

To what extent the German Seminar may be reproduced 
in methods of teaching, as supplementary to lectures, is a 
question for each professor to decide for himself, looking 
at all the elements entering into the conditions of his sur- 
roundings. While some objection may be made to a few 
of the detailed features, the idea is a most fruitful one. A 
very modified form is that of giving references and rec}uir- 



8 

ing parallel readings connected closely and vitally with 
the subject, and demanding reports on the same, written or 
oral, systematized and arranged. To inspire a wide-awake 
youth to become sufficiently interested to work for himself, 
to superintend his efforts, to guide him in choice of sub- 
ject and by judicious criticism possibly as to result, tracing 
knowledge to its ultimate source, is truly a worthy and 
noble work for both instructed and instructor. 

If I understand the principles of your Philosophical So- 
ciety aright, this is, itself, a kind of Seminar. Would that 
the time were also ripe and the pecuniary conditions feas- 
ible for a University of Virginia studies, and periodical 
circulars, and scientific journals — to be supported by your 
own work and that of your students, both those in resi- 
dence and the graduates teaching in the various colleges 
and schools throughout the State and country! Would 
that the combined effort of the State of Virginia might 
support a distinctively literary periodical and a State his- 
torical organ ! I do not forget — and I congratulate you — 
that for several years the University has supported an 
Annals of Mathematics. When a University of Virginia 
graduate abroad may point to such journals as this as evi- 
dence of the spirit pervading his alma mater in intellec- 
tual aspiration, he may hope that she will be rated at her 
true worth the world over. Rightly or wrongly, it is the 
only evidence which our foreign friends will accept. When 
the spirit is present, they naturally demand the manifesta- 
tions. 

Finally, to come to the heart of the matter in this discus- 
sion of Virginian relative non-productiveness, the greatest 
need everywhere in the State and with every institution is 
increased library facilities. A well-stocked library is the 
sine qua non of all independent work. Not only this, but 
there seems to exist a positive disinclination among stu- 
dents to use the libraries, limited as these may be, as they 



9 

could and ought. I find the one thing difficult is to get 
pupils to go to libraries to search out their own material. 
This is the training which they lack and need. They are 
too busy, they say, by some strange perverseness, instead 
of being busy just through their library work and referen- 
ces, sent thither constantly by the needs of daily recita- 
tions, examinations, and general work. I confess with 
shame much the same feeling while a student at the Uni- 
versity. In one of my sessions, the statement was made 
in the University Magazine that barely a third of the 
students had taken a book out of the library from Octo- 
ber to June. I was among this third, I can truthfully add ; 
but I should be heartily opposed to the Librarian looking 
back over the records to observe how few these books were 
and just what was their general character. 

The value of the library, as a factor in education, is be- 
coming, universally recognized. All research is handi- 
capped under our present conditions, while library facili- 
ties are so meagre. Funds are needed everywhere, so that 
each Professor may be constantly adding the most neces 
sary books in his department, to which he may continually 
refer and send his pupils, and thereb}' render at least the 
bibliography and history of the subject intelligible. 

Allow me to indicate, just for the moment, what I have 
been attempting under my own very restricted conditions. 
Within the past year the libraries of the two literary scicie- 
ties have been added to that of the college, placing at the 
disposal of my classes from eight to ten thousand miscel- 
laneous volumes, in addition to the independent and ver)' 
valuable collections belonging to the neighboring Theo- 
logical Seminary. I have been getting these books ar- 
ranged according to subjects — fiction, drama, poetry, biog- 
raphy, travel, history, etc. — in convenient alcoves and 
cases, so that the student may recognize at a glance whn 
he possesses and may use. I have endeavored to interest 



lO 

a class especially in Virginian hist-ory and traditions, by 
delivering during the entire session a weekly lecture upon 
the History of Virginian Education and Literary Effort, 
To insure their co-operation and attention, I have organ- 
ized them for the nonce into a Hampden-Sidney Histor- 
ical Society to pry into and glean all the details they may 
be able to find respecting their local history. I further 
assigned each a definite topic upon which to report. I 
was much interested, therefore, in placing apart all the 
volumes and pamphlets, some four or five hundred in 
numlDcr, which bore in any way upon Virginia, her history 
and her people, my purpose being to make this division a 
running commentary and illustration of my remarks. I 
have found the collection so valuable that I expect 
to get my students to make a complete list thereof 
and publish, if nowhere else, at least in the college maga 
zine, so that these books may be placed on recard both 
for my own classes and for the guidance of any future 
worker in the field. How much relieved my own investi- 
gations on this subject would be, if I could but know the 
similar contents of every library in the State. Think of 
havmg accessibl,e a list of all books in this State relative 
to Virginia's life ! Perhaps a Bureau of Education or 
Legislative Bill will some day effect this, if not some pub- 
lic-spirited Maecenas. 

If even our libraries, limited as they are, were but care- 
fully arranged and catalogued according to subjects, with 
authors' index and other side references, and these were 
printed, or at least made generally and easily accessible, a 
student or investigator might then know whether it were 
worth his while to spend one or two weeks or even a few 
days to consult such and such volumes, which he knew 
definitely were to be secured. And certainly every local 
student could work better with his material carefully 
classified at his finger tips. 



II 

Virginian students are further fortunately situated in that 
they are relatively near and convenient to the great col- 
lections of books in Washington and in Baltimore. None of 
our institutions can act up to its possibilities until it makes 
the most of its advantages, and presents its facilities in the 
least restricted and best systematized shape. Of the libra- 
ries in the State which I have visited and examined, that 
of the Washington and Lee University and of the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Hampden-Sidney seem to me the 
most neat, happy, and effective in their arrangement. 

Perhaps it may be considered visionary and utterly im- 
practicable to advance further and speak of a rational sys- 
tem of exchange between neighboring educational institu- 
tions in the same or even in different states. And yet 
England is thus liberal ! and books may be transmitted to 
different points on the continent to special investigators. I 
have even heard that some of our sister institutions North 
adopt a similar liberal policy. This might bring us to realize 
a little more clearly that we are all, everywhere in the State 
and country, working with one great end in view — to ad- 
vance the culture and intellectual growth of the nation. 
To indicate how very far we are from this ideal condition 
at present, it will be sufficient to note that a law — if I 
have been rightly informed — observed or not, technically 
prevents a book belonging to the Universit}' from being 
taken even off University premises. If libraries are in- 
tended for any purpose, they are to be used ; as well as to 
be places for ornaments and bric-a-brac, and for dancing 
Germans. 

In this, presence one may quote the name and opinions 
of Thomas Jefferson on educational matters with all due 
respect and seriousnes.i. The system of education which 
he developed and advocated anticipated many of our mod- 
ern theories by near a century. Going to the continent of 
Europe for much of his inspiration, he combined the best 



12 

foreign thought and methods with due regard for the dif- 
ferent conditions in the new world. Scores of years later 
some of our more Northern institutions, seeking the same 
sources, returned home with similar ideas, and proclaimed 
to the American world as a fresh discovery what was only 
a renewed inspiration. Mr. Jefferson not only had a place 
for the common and high schools, colleges, and his central 
State University, in his educational system, but in at least 
one of his propositions he advocated, fourth and last, a 
Library. This stood for not simply advanced and higher 
work ; it signified especially reading and private research 
and personal investigation as the crowning point of all 
scholarship. 

No one library in the State corresponds perfectly to this 
description. The State Library in the Capitol at Rich- 
mond i.s far more valuable than many suppose. One is 
constantly lighting upon rare old books with distinct value 
to the antiquarian and historical investigator, which have 
never found their way into the imperfect records. But it 
occupies at present a very limited space, is poorly housed 
and shelved, and as a consequence badly arranged and 
still worse catalogued. This is imputing no fault to the 
officers in charge ; it is simply a mathematical problem of 
limitations. [I am happy to note that a bill has just been 
referred to the appropriate committee in the present legis- 
lature for the erection of a commodious and fire-proof 
home for these treasures of the State.] 

Much the same may be said of your library here, if you 
will allow me to speak entn nous, as an alumnus and well- 
wisher of the University. Looking at my own department 
1 am pleased to see many of the books on tlie study of 
English philology brought together upon neighboring 
.shelves. There only remains that the works in English 
and Airerican literature should receive the same generous 
treatment. The recent gift of a few thousand volumes 
would be far more serviceable, not by remaining in lodg- 



13 

ings where, to examine the contents, one must get down 
on all fours and perform sundry acrobatic feats, but by 
distribution of the various works it contains into the 
proper apartments of philology, science, history, litera- 
ture, etc., where they belong. I am rejoiced to hear of 
this bequest. I have the feeling that a well-equipped, 
well arranged, and well used library is worth to an institu- 
tion two or three additional chairs. It is in itself a post- 
graduate course to anyone in any line for all time. I 
frankly long for the day when our wealthy citizens may 
leave money to be expended for this purpose, as well as 
for founding new institutions and for creating new profes- 
sorships. We need the chairs which we already have, and 
new ones too, to be rendered as efficacious as possible. 

That in these illustrations I have been naturally thinking 
more of my own two departments, English and History, 
you will pardon. It is best that I speak wholly from per- 
sonal experience and personal needs. 

As intimated before, I have been attempting to get my 
pupils and others interested in the collection of material 
scattered all throughout the State and the South — in Vir- 
ginian historical and literary traditions. It has been an 
almost entirely neglected field in our educational institu- 
tions, so far as any systematic work has been attempted. 
The subject, further, appeals to the patriotism, the college 
enthusiasm, the local feelings of the student,. It is in con- 
sonance with the great interest manifested everywhere in 
the study of American history and institutions. The study 
of the history of Virginia, too, has great importance in 
itself, being second to that of no State in value, and sur- 
passing most. Above all, the inductive methods of philo- 
•sophic research are clearly exemplified and practised : 
how to use books, examine libraries, gather details, com- 
pile notes, sift material, and draw conclusions. I am not 
willing to have it urged that the painful collection of datr 
is not the work of a scholar. .If scholars are not willino 



14 

to do this, pray, who will ? And we cannot hope to gen- 
eralize with any degree of assurance until the heaps of 
evidence are first piled up and the working material lies 
at hand. 

No scrap of information is too insignificant for these 
purposes, for preservation in local libraries. Every shred 
of the intellectual and social life is worth saving. No fact 
and circumstance is too slight to be cast aside. In every 
county, in each community, may be found and sketched 
certain traditions and local colorings — the elements (often 
neglected and usually overlooked) in which consist the 
real being of the State, and whereby a true picture of the 
life of the people, of their culture, their habit of thought, 
their latent power and inherent force, may be obtained. 
From a close study of old newspaper advertisements alone, 
the economical and social life of the past may be almost 
reconstructed. 

It is not too early to be looking into our environment 
and analyzing our conditions. Much valuable material is 
continually being destroyed. Just this past summer a sad 
case came too late to my notice. Barrels and boxes full 
of papers and pamphlets, many relating to Hampden-Sid- 
ney, and nearly all, in one way or other, to the State, the 
accumulations of a life-time on the part of a venerable 
and indefatigable reader and collector, were, forsooth, pi- 
ously burned by the female portion of the household be- 
cause this "trash" had always been in the way, and they 
were now going to move in a new dwelling. And yet, 
there were two libraries a hundred yards away, eitiier of 
which should have been grateful to have received, assorted, 
and preserved these documents. More lamentable in- 
stances and greater losses than this, I have no doubt, could 
readily be recorded. 

Can any one wonder that little history and little litera- 
ture has proceeded from a people who have such little re- 



15 

gard for " trifles ? " and, I fear, the indictment is more or 
less just against the people of the entire South. 

There is hardly need here for suggesting the number of 
monographs that might easily be written. Local students 
might offer valuable contributions to the State's educa- 
tional history; the young theologian would find a rich 
and suggustive field in the theological controversy and 
• religious experience of the past ; the interested scientist 
could devote no little consideration to the analysis of the 
contributions to his own department of thought ; many 
others could examine the political activity, the social fea- 
tures, the economical conditions, everywhere manifest in 
Virginian life. Each of these headings is a theme not sim- 
ply for chapter, but for a volume. It is virtually an un- 
touched field, so limitless are its resources. Men have la- 
bored for the State and seem in danger of being forgotten, 
whose memory, had they lived in other sections, might 
have been kept green, through memoirs and biographies 
dedicated to their lives and deeds. I am indebted to a 
suggestion in the selections from Dr. Bocock's writings, 
that alone to write the history of Virginia's judges and at- 
torney-generals, great lawyers and great teachers of the 
law, would be as magnificent an undertaking as that noble 
work entitled Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors of 
England. The history of Virginian journalism, the scien- 
tific and professional interests, the military and naval 
achievements, the personal adventures — all furnish mate- 
rial. Even Henry Cabot Lodge's manufactured statistics 
in the September Century awards Virginia the palm in 
statesmen and pioneers. The real history of the Univer- 
sity of Virginia and every literary institute in the State is 
still to be written. The treatises of Prof Adams and oth- 
ers on this subject merely indicate the way and suggest 
what might be accomplished. 

If I may be allowed to pass a criticism upon Dr. Thomas 
Nelson Page's recent article in the December Lippiiicott 



i6 

on literature in the South since the war, it is not conceived 
upon sufficiently a broad basis, but is taken up altogether 
too much with considerations of his own department, viz. 
fiction. The South has a past, and it is natural that her 
writers linger with tender and loving remembrance upon 
its glories and its beauties. It is the romantic element 
present in fiction — ^just as in the conditions which produced 
Scott's Border Romances. This is one phase, and it is 
finding beautiful and worthy expression ; the expression 
of purity, tenderness, and nobility; of ideals lost but still 
cherished. But it is only one phase in the complexity of 
Virginian intellectual activity. There are glimpses of much 
serious work being done in the South and in Virginia 
apart from mere fiction — in letters, in science, in philo- 
sophic thought, in professional life, to indicate that there 
is likewise a present and a future, and a scnolarship among 
educated men endeavoring to face these responsibilities. 

Dr. Page himself is advertised in the prospectus of the 
Atlantic Monthly for 1892 to furnish two critical articles 
on Philip Pendleton Cooke and John Esten Cooke. So 
Professor Trent, of the University of the South, is correct- 
ing at the present moment the proof-sheets of his Life of 
Simms for the American Men of Letters' Series. These are 
two glorious opportunities for Virginians, discussing Vir- 
ginian and Southern writers and conditions, to appear in 
a serious and critical role before the most exclusive and 
fastidious of Bostonian literary publics. I have both the 
hope and the conviction that these two gentlemen realize 
their golden opportunity and will accordingly grasp it. 

I believe that the extension of research means an increase 
in interest all along the line in every department of intel- 
lectual work, It augers the era of a revival in both sci- 
entific and literary effort. I do not think the spirit of the 
two contradictory. They often go hand in hand in an age, 
in a time, if not in an individual. The awakening of mind 



i; 



is the sole condition, as in the case of the New Learning 
preceding and leading up to the Elizabethan Renaissance. 
This one may devote himself to the science and that one 
to the art, but there is enough material to satisfy both 
conditions, enough workers to accommodate both the sci- 
ences and the arts. 

I am loth to yield too much to climatic conditions and 
the natural indolence of Southern youth. That would be 
a total begging of the question. I believe we have energy 
enough expended and wasted. We wish to create a con- 
genial atmosphere, and direct this energy to a right appre- 
hension and proper conservation of its powers. Please 
understand me. I am in no sense decrying our work in 
the past or even at present. I recognize its great good. 
But teachers should be constantly questioning their con- 
ditions and demanding: Can this work be rendered even 
more effective ? Can these opportunp:ies be made more 
vitally telling ? 

A natural optimism almost persuades one that the cir- 
cumstances are ripe. The State is expanding in a many- 
sided activity, engaging no longer in a struggle against 
odds, nor maintaining a defensive attitude in thought and 
feeling. She is stirring and feeling herself. She is con- 
scious. The nucleus of public libraries is being started, 
systems of public lectures organized at many of our insti- 
tutions, and in our larger towns and cities. As these 
increase in population and opportunity, literary clubs and 
social organizations are being everywhere formed. The 
possibilities of modern city life means development along 
many lines. All the signs point to new evolutions, and, I 
am inclined to think, to increased interest in culture, in 
the rarer heights of intellect, spirit, and social instinct. 
The commercial swing of the day need not disturb too 
much these calculations. It ought to be merely the basis 
of and transition to better things and greater opportuni- 
ties to those in whom the University has already instilled 
a love for the noblest and the highest. 



i8 

The universities and colleges which guide the young 
men of today, who are the instigators of these movements 
tomorrow, have opportunities to affect deeply, if not to 
control, and direct this movement. Most of the young 
men prominent in these scientific, literary, historical, and 
social gatherings are old students of the University. They 
are unquestionably acting in the full belief and persuasion 
that they are advancing the cause in which they are en- 
listed. But I have often wondered whether the direct 
incentive was received here at the proper time, while 
students, or whether these manifestations and interests are 
but afterthoughts, and later and independent developments. 

Social and economical considerations throughout the 
entire country — and the same is true of this State — will 
prevent there ever being any one exclusive centre, and it 
is best that this should be so for many reasons. But the 
city of Richmond, with its historic and social traditions, 
and the State University with its high ideals and undis- 
puted prestige must always command leading recognition 
in Virginia. 

The young Virginian is no longer absorbed exclusively 
in politics. He is a scientist, an artist, a litterateur, he is 
many things besides — even a baseball player and master 
of the tennis racket, bicyclist, oarsman, and high-kicker 
on the football eleven. All this is encouraging. It means 
a widening of range and capabilities in matters hitherto 
too much put aside and neglected. May not more of them 
become, too, investigators, patient toilers and seekers after 
light and truth ? 

I close with a sentence culled from a letter of Professor 
Stone's, to whose kindness and hospitality is due my pres- 
ence here this evening: " Research is the key-note to all 
futuie progress in Higher Education in Virginia" — and I 
take it that this means research as adapted to Virginian 
conditions, as favored by Virginian opportunities, as lim- 
ited by Virginian circumstances, as applied to Virginian 
students. 



UBBABVOFCONGBESS 




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Hollinger 

pH 83 

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